Fort Pillow Massacre, Confederate slaughter of African American Federal troops stationed at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on April 12, 1864, during the American Civil War. The action stemmed from Southern outrage at the North’s use of black soldiers. From the beginning of hostilities, the Confederate leadership was faced with the question of whether to treat black soldiers captured in battle as slaves in insurrection or, as the Union insisted, as prisoners of war.

Wood engraving depicting the Fort Pillow Massacre.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-42018)

Background

The Battle of Fort Pillow occurred as part of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s spring 1864 raid into West Tennessee and Kentucky, areas held by Union troops. By the third year of the war, the Confederacy was facing severe manpower shortages and a dearth of supplies—including the horses necessary to maintain active cavalry campaigning. Consequently, Forrest launched the expedition in an attempt to gain recruits, provisions, and mounts for his command. Furthermore, Union Gen. William T. Sherman was massing forces in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in anticipation of his drive on Atlanta. Forrest and his superiors hoped that his raid would disrupt Sherman’s preparations. By this stage in the conflict, Forrest had already earned a reputation as a fierce, temperamental, and violent commander who drove his men relentlessly and often issued “surrender or die” ultimatums to his Union adversaries.

Fort Pillow is located at a bend in the Mississippi River roughly 40 miles (65 km) north of Memphis, Tennessee. Built in 1861, the fort was originally a Confederate installation named after Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow. In 1862 the combined might of the Union army and navy seized control of most of the Mississippi River and West Tennessee, rendering untenable the Confederate position at Fort Pillow, which was abandoned. Union forces moved into the vacant fort, using it as a supply depot and recruitment centre. In a tragically ironic prologue to the Fort Pillow story, Sherman, the commander of the District of Tennessee, ordered that the fort be abandoned in January 1864—about four months prior to the massacre. Union Maj. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, in command in West Tennessee, initially obeyed and then disregarded his superior’s directive, evacuating the fort in January but then ordering it to be reoccupied in February.

The fort contained a garrison of between 500 and 600 troops (consisting primarily of unionist southerners, Confederate deserters, and African Americans) when Forrest’s troops arrived. The 1,500 to 2,500 Confederate cavalrymen surrounded the fort with relative ease on the morning of April 12. For its defenders, the lay of the land around the fort combined with the poorly constructed entrenchments and fieldworks made the defense of Fort Pillow difficult. While the fort consisted of some 2 miles (3.2 km) of defenses, the Union troops had taken up position in an inner redoubt within the larger fortification. Confederate sharpshooters kept up constant fire throughout the day, wreaking havoc within the garrison. Union Maj. Lionel Booth, the fort’s commander, was killed by a sniper’s bullet. His second in command, Maj. William Bradford—who would prove to be an inept leader—assumed control. Even the Union gunboat New Era, tasked with aiding the defense of the fort from the river, proved ineffectual against the combined challenges presented by the topography and Forrest’s artillerymen. At 3:30 pm, after hours of rifle and artillery fire, Forrest demanded the fort’s surrender.

Overestimating the support he would receive from Union ships and wishing to confer with his officers, Bradford requested a one-hour cease-fire. Soon, however, Forrest spied Union boats—possibly carrying reinforcements—approaching Fort Pillow. Preparing for this eventuality, the Confederate commander ordered a detachment of his men to the northeast end of the fort to block the possible landing of Union troops. Convinced that Bradford was deceptively using the cease-fire to strengthen his garrison, Forrest informed him the fort would be stormed in 20 minutes. Further heightening an already tense situation, the troops in and around the fort began exchanging insults during the cease-fire.

After Bradford’s allotted 20 minutes had passed, Forrest—from a position roughly 400 yards (360 metres) from the front—ordered his men to assault the fort. The dismounted cavalrymen easily surmounted the ditches and parapets separating them from the Union defenders. The ill-led, outmanned, and outgunned Federals were unable to mount an effective defense from the fort’s walls out of fear of the Confedereate snipers and could do little to stop the attacking horde.

Forrest’s men quickly gained the upper hand. The situation within the fort’s walls degenerated into chaos, and command and control on both sides vanished. Some Union soldiers doggedly continued to resist; others threw down their arms in an attempt to surrender; and others—including Major Bradford—fled toward the Mississippi River.

The actual final assault on the fort’s walls and the subsequent fighting lasted less than half an hour. By that time Forrest and his staff had arrived in the fort to restore some semblance of order. Both Confederate and Union witnesses claimed that an unknown number of Federal soldiers—most of whom were African American—were gunned down after attempting to surrender. Many more were shot as they fled, while others drowned in the Mississippi River. While it is impossible to determine how many were killed in the battle as opposed to the massacre, between 277 and 295 Union troops—the majority of whom were African American—were killed in total. Only 14 Confederates were killed.

Congressional investigation

Allegations of a massacre were made immediately following the battle. A congressional committee was tasked with ascertaining what in fact had occurred during the melee. The committee, under the leadership of two Republicans—Sen. Benjamin F. Wade, a leading Radical Republican, and Rep. Daniel W. Gooch—deemed what occurred at Fort Pillow a massacre without parallel. Although the committee interviewed numerous witnesses and compiled a detailed case that included much valuable testimony, the biases of Wade and Gooch led to a propagandist slant. Like most Radical Republicans, Wade and Gooch advocated for tougher wartime policies toward the South. Further sensationalizing what was already a brutal episode would bring validity to their desired policies. Despite the propagandistic nature of the report, it permeated Northern public opinion.

Likewise, the South soon had its own equally enduring version of the battle. Most white southerners denied the occurrence of a massacre. Not only did Forrest vehemently deny that his men did anything wrong, but he and his supporters argued that those killed at Fort Pillow were the victims not of violent racism but of the chaos of battle, the ineptitude of their leaders, and their refusual to surrender.

Despite the initial arguments of Confederates—and the continued insistence of Forrest’s apologists—proclaiming that no massacre had occurred, evidence to the contrary is simply too overwhelming. While not as overblown as the arguments put forward by Wade and Gooch, the interpretations of the vast majority of modern historians convincingly show that a massacre took place. Twice as many Union soldiers were killed during the battle than were wounded—an inverse ratio for Civil War battles. Moreover, only 20 percent of the black soldiers present were taken prisoner, while roughly 60 percent of the white troops present were captured.

Legacy

Although in terms of size and strategic importance Fort Pillow pales in comparison with other often-studied Civil War engagements, it did have some significant consequences. Like the Alamo a generation earlier, the Fort Pillow Massacre became a rallying cry for a people fighting for their independence. It served to harden the resolve of African American soldiers, and “Remember Fort Pillow!” became their battle cry.